Corn (maize) tortillas have to be the quintessential American bread. American as in ‘from the Americas’, not ‘USiAn’. Several highly organized civilizations flourished in North, Central and South America, all without wheat which was unknown to them. Maize was their staple, and alongside beans, a grass somewhat resembling rice, and potatoes in the South. With these sources of complex carbohydrates who would want for wheat (or barley)?

Of these cultures and culinary traditions practically only one survives, that of the Nahua (Aztec, if you insist), and that is amalgamated with Spanish traditions to form the wonder that is Mexican food. Stuck for a G-F meal? Look no further than Mexico.

We bought a tortilla press many years ago from Zabar‘s in NYC. It was made of aluminium, cost about $20 and broke on its first outing. Sad to say we never made tortillas again… until this morning and, like the granola and the oatcakes we are again finding our palms firmly smacking our heads. WHY did we not do this before? The difference in flavor between these puppies and the corn tortillas we have been subsisting on from Trader Joe’s is like the difference between cheese and chalk. These tlaxcalli are sublime, especially the first run off the comal, slathered with farm butter.

Lest I upset any real Mexican that happens to find this page, we used Maseca (masa seca = dry dough, if you ask me) brand masa harina, but that is not real masa harina… it is itself an ‘instant’ dough (masa) flour (harina), that has some other ingredients added, most notably lard. But it is close enough for me. To be any more authentic we’d have to grow our own corn (done that, actually), and develop a nixtamalization process.

Method:

Add water bit by bit until a dough resembling kids’ playdough is formed

Break off small pieces of dough and form golf-ball sized spheres

Flatten into a circle to your required thickness (our first batch varied a _lot_)

Cook on a comal/griddle* until golden and delicious, or

partially cook on a a griddle, making a batch that can be further grilled at a more convenient time.

* We were given a very thin steel comal by a Mexican friend several years ago that I swear was beaten out of an old trashcan lid, and this did the trick perfectly as it was very quick to heat up and cool down. That is rusting overseas right now, so we have co-opted an old cast iron griddle that has been used solely for making sincronizadas (quesadillas).

Ah, method. #3 is the one to watch out for here. Since we are without a tortilladora two alternate methods were tried.

#1 Rolling pin: The first was rolling out a tortilla on a floured surface. This was entirely unacceptable as the dough is very frangible and frequently tore, and even when it did not, the shape is irregular, and it makes a mess. We are looking for a quick and clean method so that making tortillas becomes second nature, making it next to no hassle to make a fresh batch for breakfast before the kids head off to school in the mornings.

#2 Ad hoc press: The second method was opening up a 1 gallon (US ~ 3.78L) zip lock bag, and placing a ball of masa between the layers. The ball was then pressed flat with body weight behind a cast iron skillet. This led to circular tortillas, but considerable stress on our work surface. It seems pretty clear that the real way to go is to get a tortilla press. Internet ‘research’ thus far seems to indicate that a heavy wooden press made of mesquite wood would be ideal– most reviews of cast iron tortilladoras indicate a problem with the handle snapping under compression, just like our old aluminium press.

Lest y’all think that everything works out in our GF kitchen, I’ve decided to add that the following did not. Well, not quite. The bread is darned tasty, and is wonderful toasted with a bit of fresh butter. We are BIG butter fans, especially locally made stuff (not Cabots or Land o’ Lakes, or anything ‘stick’ form, really), the sort of butter that is pretty close to tasting of cheese.

I think it is really just a question of getting the right flour combination down, and practising technique. Bread making is hard enough to get right with regular wheat flour, let alone with the added complexity of a bread sans gluten.

I should repeat again that we use a nifty electronic scale, which is just so convenient for baking. Place on a bowl, zero (or ‘tare’) it, add ingedient, zero once more… add ingredient. Rinse and repeat.

Method:

Set the yeast in a warm sugar solution and cover

‘Biltz’ the oats in a food processor to break them up

Add other dry ingredients, and give the processor a few spins to mix the ingredients

Add honey and butter and rub in until one has what looks and feels like fine breadcrumbs

When the yeast starter is starting to bubble, add it and 400ml of warm water to the dry ingredients and beat to form a batter. Cover and set aside to let the yeast get all saccharomycidal on those complex sugars, and the batter to rise

Preheat oven to 200C

Grease a 450g loaf tin, pour in batter

Bake until golden brown and cooked through (45-50 minutes)

Gluten-Free Oat Bread

A few thoughts for next time… Higher oven temperature at least initially. Buckwheat is, we think, a little bit heavy. Perhaps 50g less rice flour, and replace that deficit AND the tapioca for 100g of potato flour. Maybe also leave out the sesame seeds (add a little sesame oil instead), and give longer for the yeast to really get going.

One can’t have Thanksgiving without cornbread. This recipe comes as a surprise: I picked up a bag of almond meal whilst shopping and decided to try it as a straight substitute for flour in cornbread. Normally, I use some combination of tapioca flour, garbanzo flour, masa, or any of the other GF powders I have lying around.

With almond meal in hand, I surfed up a couple of recipes, and used this one for inspiration. The result? A nice, surprisingly moist, cornbread that was good enough to reheat and enjoy the following day. This one really hit the spot.

Moist, and not too cakey.

Ingredients:

100g (1/2 cup) each of white and yellow cornmeal (could use 200g/1cup of either)

75g (3/4 cup) almond meal

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

2 large eggs

250 ml (1 cup) buttermilk

25g (2-3 tbsp.) honey

85g unsweetened applesauce [NOTE: Recipe calls for: 60g (4 tbsp) unsalted butter, melted and really this should have meant about 70g applesauce, but I had extra to use up.]

Please, someone, tell me why I did not make granola earlier: for years, I have shied away from purchasing the stuff at the store because it all seems too “fancy” with artificial fruit flavours, etc., that simply do not appeal. What set me to work was seeing “GF granola” on our shopping lists, and realizing just how expensive it is. Really? For what is basically glorified oats? So, I set to; and behold:

GF granola made to order!

What I used (apologies in advance I did not measure out this recipe with the scale):

4 c. gluten-free oats (note that these should be “old-fashioned” oats)

¼ c. chopped almonds

¼ cup dark brown sugar

¼ cup peanut oil

¼ cup maple syrup

raisins and dried cranberries. Oh, and more almonds.

Method:

Preheat the oven 300F/150C.

Mix together the almonds, oats, and brown sugar.

Warm the oil and syrup, then pour it slowly over the oats mixture while stirring.

Stir together with a spoon, then make it uniform by using your hands.

Spread the mixture evenly on a baking tray (or trays).

Bake for 40 minutes, stirring the mixture on the tray every 10 minutes.

Let the granola cool on the baking trays.

Add nuts, raisins, or other dried fruit as desired.

Future variations:

Experiment with coconut, olive, and other oils.

For the liquid sugar, try agave, honey, molasses, or treacle.

Additions may include any variety of nuts, dried fruits, and other morsels: our favourites include cashews, dark chocolate chunks, macadamia nuts, and sunflower seeds.

We can thank STS-133 for our family’s appreciation of key lime pie. While we did see it launch in the end, our first journey to Florida included a trip to the Keys while we waited to hear whether the mission would go ahead. That first trip may end up being the first and last time we sample proper Key Lime Pie, but we’ll continue to experiment on our own versions that bring us back to Islamorada. The current recipe is not key lime pie, even if it was inspired by that dessert. First, key limes were out of season and therefore not available. Secondly, we decided to add a meringue using the leftover egg whites. That and Joseph was very much into the ‘science’ of meringues.

Whip the egg whites (after adding some green food coloring to keep in theme) and 1/4 cup of icing/confectioners’ sugar until stiff, and forming peaks. Spread on top of the pie.

Bake until golden brown (10-15 minutes)

Right, so our crust was a bit large, and the consistency of the crust was such that it flopped over onto the pie filling. We rather liked the effect, one child claiming that it looked a bit like some weird planetoid. In any event, we covered all of this with the colored meringue.

Modifications: for a start, we try to use key limes! That said, the slightly milder taste meant that everyone in the family liked this one. One time we included rind and made an incredibly intense pie. I’d recommend that for anyone who wants pie tasting to be an experience.

Gluten-free beef pasties. (This is one where you’ll have to use your own judgment regarding amounts: we just threw it together, but the addition of lamb stock made the filling especially rich. The point of this post? You can be gluten-free and still feed that craving for a pasty.)

Beef fresh from the village butcher

Filling (ingredients):

Fresh string beef from the local butcher

Gluten-free flour

Olive oil or animal fat

Red wine

Lamb stock (made with bones from yesterday’s lamb chops)

Peas and parboiled carrots and potatoes (we used small new potatoes)

We tossed the beef in gluten-free flour

Filling (method):

Dice the meet into small- and medium-sized cubes

Toss the beef in gluten-free flour

Brown the beef in oil/fat

Remove the beef from the pan and deglaze with red wine

Restore beef to the pan

Add lamb stock, carrots, peas, and potatoes

Cook until the mixture is nice and thick

Preparing the pasties:

Roll out pastry (look at other entries for gluten-free pastry)

Cut the dough into large ovals (roughly double the size you want your pasty to be)

Spoon a heap of filling onto one half of each cut-out portion of dough, being careful to leave room at the edges

Fold the remaining dough over the filling so that you can crimp the sides together to create a filled packet of pastry

Brush the pastry with milk if desired

Bake at about 400 degrees Fahrenheit until the pastry is golden

Nice, meaty filling

Note: gluten-free pastry does not hold together as well as regular pastry, so you will probably want to eat these on a plate with a knife and fork, for they are unlikely to stay together if you try to eat them with your hands.

As if a Yorkshire pudding can be gluten-free: please send suggestions of a suitable name for a GF version of something akin to a Yorkshire pudding.

The pudding, still reasonably puffed up.

Ingredients:

150 g gluten-free flour[1]

50 g buckwheat flour

50 g brown rice flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp xanthan gum

4 eggs

450 ml milk[2]

1 tbsp animal fat (beef dripping, lard)

[1] I had exactly 150 g left of a large batch of GF flour I’d made with: equal parts rice flour and garbanzo flour, plus a bit of corn starch to equal 150 g; 1 tsp each of xanthan gum and baking powder

[2] The non-GF recipe called for 150 ml milk and this is quite an increase. However, since many GF flours are very fine and have a high surface-to-volume ratio, they absorb more liquid than wheat flours. In order to achieve the proper consistency in the batter before setting, I added quite a bit of extra milk. I would suggest adding the liquid bit by bit– putting the extra in by additional 50-100 ml measures.

Method:

Whisk together the dry ingredients

Make a well in the middle of the flour mix, add the eggs, and beat the eggs together first, then with the flour

Add the milk and mix until evenly blended and the batter is thin

Let the batter set for about half an hour

In this time, preheat the oven to 245 C or 475 F. [I started at 230/450 but went up to 260/500 after 15 minutes]

While the oven is heating up, put the animal fat in a cast iron skillet/frying pan

When the oven is heated and the fat is sizzling, pour in the batter

Place in the oven and cook for 20-30 minutes (original flour recipe called for 15-20, mine was in for 30)

The first time I tried to make gluten-free dumplings, they worked out beautifully. Indeed, the existence of this blog is largely down to our desire to record those things that go well. For the record: I have not yet replicated those wonderful dumplings, but am working on it.

Cornmeal buckwheat dumplings.

Recipe 1: Cornmeal buckwheat soy dumplings

1/3 cup (75 g) yellow cornmeal

1/3 cup (35 g) soy flour

1/3 cup (55 g) buckwheat flour

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 cup (60 g) grated suet

cold water (about 1/3 cup?)

Salt/pepper/seasoning to taste

Method

Whisk together the dry ingredients

Mix in the suet until evenly blended

Add cold water bit by bit until the dough just sticks together.

You should be able to shape the dough into small balls (see picture under recipe 2).

Drop the balls into a simmering pot of stew or soup

Heat for 10-15 minutes at least, or until ready to eat

The dumplings should float when ready

Verdict: Tasty. We like the earthiness added by the buckwheat, and the hearty texture from the cornmeal. However, I do not expect these to hold up. If you want something that will turn into a thickener, these are perfect. I still need to work on the balance a bit, but this batch went down well.

See above: the same method applies for these as for the cornmeal buckwheat dumplings.

Mix the dough until it just comes together

Then form bite-sized balls

Verdict:

I actually made two versions of the masa dumplings: in one batch, I added a bit of xanthan gum and baking powder. Those fell apart immediately. The others had a nice texture and were quite light, but fell apart overnight. I suspect that masa is not the best flour to use but will need to do more tests to see if it is the culprit (a while back I had another batch of masa dumplings that fell apart). In other words, nice taste and texture, but only good for one meal. After that, they become thickener.

Some notes:

The first thing is, note that when using weights there should be about double the weight of flour to fat (so, 100 g flour to 50 g fat). When using measuring cups, the amount of flour is about the same as fat (about 1 cup flour and 1 cup loosely shredded fat).

From (1) it should be clear that the measurements for cups/weights do not always add up. This is because measuring cups are inherently less precise than scales. For instance, shredded suet has a lot of air in it, so don’t worry too much that I have noted a 10g difference in weight for the suet used in two recipes where I estimated it to be “about a cup”. If in doubt, use scales; in most cases, it is fine to give or take a few grams or milliliters.

I do not normally use soy flour but had it to hand. For decent cornmeal dumplings, 1/3 cup cornmeal to 2/3 cup other gluten-free flour should work just fine. Fool around with different flours until you find a texture/taste that works for you.

While I normally season the dumplings with black pepper, sometimes chili pepper, and with a dash of salt. I did not season the cornmeal buckwheat ones, and they tasted fine.

I am not convinced that the xanthan gum is necessary in the second recipe; baking powder may not be, either. Experiment!

If you cannot get suet, try freezing and then grating butter. One normally thinks of the suet as being shredded, but I buy a large frozen chunk from a local farm shop and grate it on demand.

The boys like peanut butter and they like chocolate, but the peanut butter cups from the store are too sweet and too salty. Moreover, we like bittersweet chocolate, so we decided to make our own. After all, I had a bunch of mini muffin cups I’d picked up in the post-Christmas sale at IKEA.

This is a project the kids can help with: mine not only helped fill the cups, they were wholly responsible for the decorations.

Ingredients:

1 cup creamy peanut butter, separated into two equal parts *

1 1/2 tbsp. butter

1 tsp. honey

One bag (about 2 cups) dark chocolate chips

Some extra semi-sweet chips (to make a generous 2 cups of chips)

Roughly 4 oz. of milk chocolate (this I might remove from the recipe next time)

Decorations

Mini muffin cups (sized to suit)

* To be sure, one could substitute soy butter, sunflower butter, or something similar for those cases where peanut butter is unwelcome.

Method:

In a double boiler,* combine chocolate and about half of the peanut butter

Stir the chocolate peanut butter mixture until smooth

In a separate bowl, combine 1/2 cup peanut butter, honey, and butter

Mix until smooth (I put the bowl over the double boiler for a few minutes to speed up the process)

Using a teaspoon, drip the melted chocolate into the bottom of the muffin cups until just covered.

At the end of this step, I rolled the cups around just enough to bring the chocolate up the sides, but this is not necessary

Carefully put a small dab of the peanut butter mixture in the middle of each muffin cup. Be careful not to let the peanut butter touch the sides!

We are big lovers of cornmeal pancakes in our family, but the boys were hankering for something closer to traditional wheat ones, so we figured it was time to throw together a batch of buckwheat pancakes.

Yield: 7 large pancakes

The ingredients:

1 cup (120 g) buckwheat flour

½ cup (20 g) masa harina

¼ tsp. baking soda

2/3 tsp. baking powder

pinch of salt

1 tbsp. maple syrup

1 ¼ cup (300 ml) milk

1 tbsp. butter, melted

3 eggs*

* The original recipe called for 1 egg, but I wanted additional egg whites to make the pancakes nice and fluffy. I did add the yolks to the batter, but one needn’t do so.

Method.

Whisk the dry ingredients together in a bowl.

Mix together the milk, syrup, melted butter, and egg yolk in another bowl.

Combine the wet and dry ingredients and stir until they are just mixed

Beat the egg whites until they are stiff but not dry

Fold the egg whites into the batter until just mixed

Cook away! We use a cast-iron griddle on medium-high heat

These went down very well indeed, though next time I might alter the mixture to make them more crêpe-like, as requested by one of the lads.